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Announcing the David A. Hastings Award for outstanding contributions to the Asian FOSS4G Communities
The award is in the fond memory of David, who was an early pioneer of FOSS4G, having written a GRASS GIS How-to [1], as well as being actively involved in the first FOSS4G event at Chulalongkron University in Bangkok Thailand in 2004 [2], where he helped bring the future founders of the annual FOSS4G event Jeff McKenna, Markus Neteler, and Venkatesh Raghavan, together; indeed, they shared many laughs and stories on that special trip together. He also led an “Installfest” at that FOSS4G 2004 event, which set the tone for training workshops and software packaging initiatives for subsequent FOSS4G events.
David would later go on to develop the global level measurement of human development and happiness, what he coined as the Human Security Index.
Dr. David A. Hastings left on his heavenly abode on the 13th of November, 2017. He leaves behind wonderful memories and deep sense of appreciation with all his friends and colleagues. His wisdom and wit and his contributions long remembered.
The award will be presented in the closing plenary of the FOSS4G-Asia 2021 event at the Kathmandu University on 2nd October 2021. The hope is that this award helps in spreading David’s passion for serving the Free and Open Source communities in Asia now and into the future.
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Yoichi Kayama-san was awarded the inaugural David A. Hastings Award for outstanding contributions to the Asian FOSS4G Communities at the FOSS4G Asia 2018 held from 2nd to 5th December, 2018 in Moratuwa, Sri Lanka for his invaluable contributions to the spread, localization and customization of FOSS4G tools in Asia and beyond. He, almost, single-handedly accomplished the arduous task of QGIS Japanese Localization and also severed as a knowledge bank for several users to adopt FOSS4G solution in their work. Yoichi Kayama is appropriately referred to as the FOSS4G “Legend” of the Japanese FOSS4G community. His contributions in the spread of FOSS4G in academic, business and government are truly enormous. He has contributed immensely to localization of FOSS4G tools (especially QGIS) and customization of tools to cater to user needs in Asia and beyond. He is a rare mix of a FOSS4G evangelist and a software developer. His contributions to the Open Source and Open Data Geospatial Community are in the true spirit of David A. Hastings philosophy of putting “community before self”.
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The organizing committee of the FOSS4G Asia 2021 requests nominations for the David A. Hastings Award. The last date for the nominations is 15th September 2021 (23:59UTC).
The 2021 David A. Hastings Award Committee is made up of::
- Gerald Fenoy
- Jeff McKenna
- Reshma Shrestha
- V. Ravi Kumar
- Venkatesh Raghavan
- Yoichi Kayama
All nominations should be sent by email to Venkatesh Raghavan, Chair, David Hastings Award Committee, at raghavan@osaka-cu.ac.jp
Please make sure to include the following information in your email:
- Nominee
- Reason for nomination (Short note)
- Nominators’ Name
- Nominators’ email
- Short description of nominator (Yourself)
[1] https://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/GIS-GRASS/index.html
[2] Free/Libre and Open Source Software for Geoinformatics: GIS-GRASS Users Conference
[3] FROM HUMAN DEVELOPMENT TO HUMAN SECURITY